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Game 4: Michigan vs. Duke Post Game

Michigan didn’t have enough left in the tank against Duke’s stifling defense tonight.Â Michigan shot 35.8% from the field and 22% from long range. Against a team that is loaded with talent this isn’t going to cut it. However the encouraging fact is that Michigan didn’t get blown off the floor. Duke pulled away late but in general Michigan was competitive for stretches. Duke just flat out knows how to win these preseason tournaments.

Manny Harris set the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament record for points scored, 96,Â in 4 games passing fellow Detroit product Chris Douglass-Roberts. Manny is off to a hot start averaging 24 points per game through the first four games.Â He struggled shooting at times in MSG and often took shots behind the NBA line, I don’t know if he was trying to show off his range or was just confused. But overall it was a great start to the season for Manny.

But overall this is a successful weekend. Michigan knocked off a top 5 team and didn’t really get embarrassed by the Blue Devils. I don’t want to overreact but once you add Laval Lucas-Perry I am starting to feel a lot better about Michigan’s chances in the Big Ten.Â I am sure any Michigan fan would take a split with UCLA and Duke and now Michigan needs to take care of business against Norfolk and Savannah State before another big test at Maryland.

Everyone needs to get out to Crisler on Tuesday night (8:30 pm) for the game against Norfolk State. Anyone gets in for $1 if you donate two cans of food and students of course get in free with an M-Card. This team deserves a good crowd for their first game back from a successful trip to New York City.

I’m going to play with making some kind of comprehensive review of the tournament or maybe just the UCLA game later next week. I also thought the live blog was a success and hopefully a few more people join the next time I might have to hire a few moderators.

Boys– I was impressed again by what I saw against Duke. It’ll be fun to see what adjustments Coach Beilein makes when Michigan plays thenm on December 6 in Ann Arbor.
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For the recruitniks out there– Should Michigan recruit 6-11 Dashonte Riley 6-11, C from Detroit Country day who just decomitted from Georgetown ?

I know, I know U-M is supposedly out of scholarships but thats not true if Michigan doesn’t extend the fifth year to Zach Gibson.
Riley can run the floor, he has a decent jumpshot and is a coordinated athletic 6-11 instate low-post player Michigan has too recruit him.

old fan

Any reason given to why Riley decommitted. I have heard that he is a bit flaky and was dropping based on summer performance. He is big though and highly rated.

Also, is there an offical decision on Cronin. Maybe I missed it. Redshirt?

Brick

Michigan should not (and won’t) recruit Riley. He is not a fit for where the program is going and is dropping fast in the recruiting rankings.

The Cronin decision is not official because there will be no decision until it has to be made (30% of the season). I think at this point he redshirts just because he is still learning and could use a year of conditioning. He may get worked into some games if we have a comfortable lead but it looks like JB is OK with the small lineup. I hope it works for Big 10 season because size was an issue against Duke.

Voice of Reason

It would be interesting to find out about Dashonte Riley, because if he was offered a scholarship to Georgetown then we know that he is a player. The only real questions left would be is Riley a Beilein type of player and is he an upgrade? I hope so.

jwalk

I was encouraged by tonight’s game. I think they game out a little hyped and overshot the long ball. Then came the inevitable letdown in the second half. A team that’s been through more of these types of situations is going to start the game more even-keeled and be able to better weather that second half letdown.

This is invaluable experience for late season and post-season games.

MaizeNBlue2

The first half reminded me a lot of the UCLA game overall. The notable exception being our offense was a little better and Duke didn’t commit the amount of turnovers that UCLA did. We were in it at the half.

Duke made a run to start the second. However, the guys never gave up and kept fighting. As Dylan said, we just didn’t shoot well enough to compete with a team as talented as Duke. That’s the main difference. In the second half against UCLA we hit 50% behind the arc in the 2nd half and the shooting percentage improved dramatically. Not so against the Blue Devils.

And, I didn’t point this out ahead of time, but after reading some of the comments about how Duke isn’t going to pressure the ball like UCLA did, this needs to be said. I don’t know where you guys came up with this, but if you’ve ever watched Duke, you’d know they have GREAT on the ball pressure, every year. That may have been the reason for our shooting woes, or it might have been the lack of legs from playing Top 10 teams on back-to-back nights. Most likely though, it was a combination of the two.

With that being said, I just want to express how proud I am of the guys on this team. They fought hard and never gave up. The hustle was there all night and it was refreshing. Please, those of you that are able to, get out to support this team. They deserve it after the way they played. They’re going to give it their best all year long, and if we beat who we should beat, the tournament drought could be over. If we can knock off a couple of teams we’re not supposed to (Duke, Maryland,etc), then we should be dancing for the first time in a decade. Go Blue!

ryan

The thing I like about having manny harris; He is good, but is not good enough to go pro yet. He will be a 4 year player!!

AG2

They got two more tune-ups before the trip to Maryland. That would be a perfect tournament resume booster.

Don’t sweat losses to Duke, a lot of teams lose to Duke. UNC loses to Duke.

Old Style

I wish I could get to more games but it is tough living on the West side of the state. Hopefully the local support picks up though because both of the games I went to last year were not very well attended.

Maybe its wishful thinking but I still think Lubick will end up in AA with Zeigler. Sam Webb basically said the only reason Lubick was not coming was the uncertainty of winning. If UM plays well this year as it appears they will, then Lubick might be willing to sign up.

Giddings

Whose scholarship would we give up though to get Lubick? Most people say Ant or Gibson but I think they’re both valuable, especially since we’re still unsure how Cronin will turn out and know close to nothing on McLimans. Ant is also probably the 2nd best shooter on the team behind Stu.

ryan

Giddings, Lubbick is a 2010 guy, not 2009

Bluebufoon

Nate Lubick is in next years class– 2010. The same class as Ziegler.
Folks I take Dashonte Riley or Angus Brandt if they are willing to come and I find a way for Zach Gibson to finish his fifth year(not on scholarship), he either can finish as a walk-on or as a student-manager or if he has already graduated–sayanora !!!

DaShonte Riley is not the answer in any scenario — sorry that’s just the way it is. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him end up a school on a much lower “tier” than Georgetown.

I’m sure Michigan will keep an interest in Angus but the word is that he would much rather go to school in the warm weather…

I really have to do a recruiting update and will probably get to it over Thanksgiving but the last week was really busy on the blog and in my life outside of the blog.

Basically I think DeShawn really is finding a role more as a 5 than a 4 in this system and Gibson is more of a 4 than a 5. Add in Morgan who is a future 5 IMO and McLimans who is a future 4 and you have some depth in the post with Cronin in this years class. Size in the post is good but it’s just not what Beilein is going for — he wants to be adequate rebounding the ball and not great. It’s a calculated risk IMO.

Jay

GOTTA…I repeat GOTTA recruit Riley..one thing you cannot do is teach 6’11 with coordination! And we have heard McClimans is a work in progress, now you give me Riley, McClimans, and Morgan as the future of our front court and I’ll take it. You have 2 low post presences and glass eaters in Morgan and Riley, and McClimans who will be more hybrid aka Pittsnogle. IF you can do it without losing that scholarship, im all for it. Plus hes a Michigan kid, and trust me in basketball recruiting the right players instate is IMPORTANT ask Ammacker! Then you have the foundation set for possible big name players like Ziegler, Ayers, Moses, Kearney etc to jump on ship.

Riley won’t get a U-M offer especially b/c it would have to come at the expense of kids who are already in the program (we are out of ships).

The best think Beilein can do for Michigan recruits is have DeShawn and Manny continue to play well and become stars.

Will Regan will hopefully be the next big man commit, but that’s in the class of ’10.

Giddings

My bad on Lubick taking someone’s scholly… I think I was getting him confused class-wise with Riley (since we were also talking about him).

By the way, Will Regan was at MSG on Friday night for the Michigan/Duke game (not sure about Thursday night). He was actually introduced at halftime as part of some 2K Sports High School All Star team. It was quite funny… Will was out there with his glasses on, looked more like a tall, skinny Harry Potter than a basketball player (especially compared to all the ripped guys around him). But hey, if he can ball (and it looks like he can based on his offer list), we’ll take him in a heartbeat.

Ky Fox

We may not need Riley, but in a year or two we are going to need a certain level of athletic ability in either the powerforward/center position. Peedi is gone after next season and other than JMo I dont see anyone taking over that role. Someone who is as versatile as Deshawn is. You have to have a certain element of that on your squad to be successful…Especially in March…Thats just all there is to it. It has been proven year in and year out. Im not saying JB wont take us places we didnt think we could go but to have real good success nationally we have to get some athletic ability in there…whether that will be Regan or someone else we will soon find out. Look at Joe Alexander. It is very apparent that Gibson is a guy who we throw in there to eat some fouls and catch some people off gaurd with his outside shooting….outside of that he doesnt bring much to the table. Not saying he cant develop a bit more under JB but even with the help of coach, some players just have a ceiling and Gibby is just about at it. I cant say enough about JB’s coaching ability..I think its just about the best in the business..but moving forward we have to develop some athletic, physical swagger, because when our outside shots are not falling, we have to be able to go to plan B…Annd rebound a little. It is all about balance…and if we can attain that, than with JB’s ability to develop skill, we will be a force to be reckoned with.

Just looking at UM schedule and Maryland to me represents a huge game. I would expect we will be in the upper half of a down Big Ten this year and probably sqaurely on the bubble come March. A win against Maryland and I think will go dancing, probably not with a loss. A difficult but winnable game.